


Smoke Signals

by HindsightHero



Category: Red Hood and the Outlaws
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-16
Updated: 2013-05-16
Packaged: 2017-12-12 01:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/805316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HindsightHero/pseuds/HindsightHero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whenever one lit up, it was like a 'help me' beacon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smoke Signals

The room smelled like stale cigarettes. The only problem was it hadn’t last time Roy checked, and while cigarette smoke was anything but uncommon in an hourly rate motel room, the smoke was still filtering in.   
  
Jason didn’t move from his place at the window.   
  
“Hope you like instant noodles” he said, putting the 7-11 bag on the counter near their so graciously provided electric kettle. “It was all they had.”   
  
Roy didn’t need to ask. He didn’t even need to look, but he did anyways.  
  
             Leaning out the window with elbows perched , the wind blew the smoke from Jason’s mouth and over his hunched shoulders. It carried into the small room, and only when Roy  finally looked away did he notice the cigarette butt floating in the glass of water on the nightstand. One in his mouth, one in the glass… Jason didn’t chain smoke. The 7-11 was just down the street, and Roy had been gone less than ten minutes. No, something was definitely wrong.  
  
 “So..” he started. “Y’wanna talk?”  
  
            A year ago he would have chewed his own tongue off before asking Jason that. A few months ago, Jason would have _ripped_ his tongue out for asking that. Well, maybe not literally but Roy had never felt like testing that out for sure.  
  
Still, things had changed in the last year and Roy had learned a few things.  
  
             The most important, was that Mr. Lone Wolf in the corner actually liked when people gave a shit about him. It was a funny thing, he’d fight, shrug it off, run away sometimes to avoid things, but in the end Jason liked having someone to tell things too. He just liked knowing people wanted to listen. Like it was reassuring. Roy understood it exactly, he just went about it the opposite way. Roy had at one point preferred to drunkenly rant his problems to strangers, and then later that became sober rants to his teammates anytime they were stuck in shared vehicles. Which, then became just Jason.   
              
              But the Red Hood preferred the outdoors, and nicotine on his lips to accompany the cyclical rants of self hatred. Or, whatever happened to be on repeat through his brain. Over time Roy had started referring them as smoke signals. The instant one lit up, it was like a ‘help me’ beacon.  
  
   Jason let out a heavy breath, and shifted his legs. “Just a bad night”  
  
  “Mm, well, tell me, should I have grabbed you another pack while I was down there?” Roy sat down on the bed near the window. He watched Jason take in another drag, an orange glow and ash creeping toward his lips. Roy waited, and still watched as the smoke rushed from his friend’s nostrils.  
  
“No.” Jason answered, and finally turned around, dropping the butt in the same glass as before.  He left the window open, and looked straight at Roy. “The smoke bothering you?”  
  
Roy raised an eyebrow and smirked, to which Jason just rolled his eyes.  
 “I’m trying to be considerate you ass”  
  
“Such a gentleman” he joked and then patted the bed. “Now sit your considerate ass down and tell me what’s up”  
  
               It was meant as a joke. Something casual, to help Jason relax. It usually worked, and Jason would sit and they’d talk and it wouldn’t be a problem. They’d done it before. In countless hotel and motel rooms. On numerous park benches and in cars.  
  
But for some reason tonight, it was a problem. Because, Jason didn’t plop down like usual. He didn’t make a face to try and lighten the mood, he didn‘t sigh and begin a rant. He just stood there.   
Looking at Roy.   
Really fucking tense.  
  
“…Jay?”  
  
“You said something earlier.” the man practically blurted, but it took a while before the continued. “It…you say that kind of thing a lot.”  
  
              Roy racked his brain for anything bad he might have said. Some joke that might have gone too far, and suddenly he was the one feeling nervous. Had he fucked up and not realized it? That happened sometimes. A few of their conversations had been about that. Like a stupid death joke that turned into a full pack of cigarettes and a separate hotel room before Jason sat down and talked about it. That was a bad one.  
“I..um..Look man, I’m sorry if I uh, if I said something stupid, y’know? I know I’m always joking and, well, my filter ain’t so good sometimes so-”  
  
“What?”  
  
Roy stopped. Confused. “..What?”  
  
“What are you talking about?”  
  
“..What are.. _you_ talking about? “  
  
             Jason shifted nervous on his feet again, and Roy became hyper apparent of the cigarette smell radiating from his jacket. He thought back, to the _Camel_ between his friend’s lips and fingers. The fact, his fingers probably smelled like smoke.   
  
Just like they had last week, when Jason had haphazardly covers Roy’s mouth with his hand during a mission to make him stay quiet.  
  
Or the night after, when Jason did it again on the greyhound bus.  
  
Actually, Jason had been smoking a lot more the last few days.  
  
“You.. said I meant the..” he gave an aggravated groan and waved his hand. “You know what, never mind.”  
  
Roy didn’t need to think too long for that one.   
  
“Oh.” he bit his lip, although a bit relieved. “…does that bother you?”  
  
Jason shrugged. Which was really helpful.  
But he finally spoke. “You’ve been saying it more lately. Or stuff like that. “  
  
“..and..you don’t like that?” Roy tried.   
  
“No! well-fuck, I do.” the words were jumbled, and Roy watched Jason nervously lick his lips.   
  
“So, You /do/ like it?” he tried confirming after giving him a moment..  
  
Jason just swallowed. He looked like he was going to be sick. “Is it true?”  
  
          Roy was dumbfounded. Jason looked like a five year old with his hands stuffed into his pockets. He looked like he was honestly scared Roy would tell him no, no it was all a lie, he actually hated the man. As if there was any chance.  
  
“Of course its fucking true, man!” he practically yelled. “Have you spent the last year thinking I was sticking around out of- out of some kind of life debt? Oh thanks for breaking me out of jail, let me just be your body guard for a year and then I’ll be out-y? Fuck no dude, when I say I’d take a bullet for you, its because I’d die for you. So when I say you mean the world to me, I _mean_ it. “ He took a breath, just staring at Jason who had equally as wide of eyes. Then Roy’s eyes narrowed. “You think you’re not worthy of that or something?”   
  
Jason had hinted at it before. Multiple times. It was impossible to ignore actually.   
  
“I thought after a month, you kind of just stuck around for Kori..” he mumbled.   
  
Jason clearly wasn’t happy to be admitting it, but still a strange mix of anger and concern swelled up in Roy’s stomach all to be let out in one big “What?!”  
  
Jason winced.   
  
“Dude!” Roy yelled again. “We’ve been over this how many times?!”  
Jason frowned and broke eye contact.   
  
“I’m sitting in a hotel room with you, and not Kori. I took a greyhound with you, and not Kori. I’ve spent the entire last _week_ with you, and you alone and I haven’t complained!”  
  
“I know I know I _know_ ” Jason tried to just end it there and he headed for the electric kettle, turning his back to Roy.   
  
“No, you clearly _don’t_ know, man!” he stood up and reached forward, grabbing Jason’s wrist. “You may find this hard to believe, but you mean _just_ as much to me as she does!“   
  
Jason froze. “You’re right. I don’t believe that, Harper.” he tried sounding cold. He tried ending the conversation, and Roy knew it. But Roy wasn’t about to let this go.  
  
“I don’t know how to get it through your skull, Jay! I mean, I’d kiss that fucking smoke filled mouth of yours if I thought for a second it would actually _work_!” his grip tightened, desperate, and then Roy noticed something.   
  
Jason was pale again.   
  
The same kind of sickly pale as before. When he was fidgeting and nervous.  
  
Then he realized, maybe just maybe, it actually _would_ work.  
  
             Roy couldn’t remember the last time he kissed a smoker. It certainly wasn’t in an hourly rate motel, and the smoker probably didn’t smell like gunpowder and cologne. The smoker most likely hadn’t kissed him with as much relief, with chapped lips and awkward hands, and the smoker definitely wouldn’t have meant the world to him.  
  
But this one did, and Roy had a feeling this one _finally_ realized it.

  
  



End file.
